How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph) or (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
In this 'House of Terror', this 'ideal workhouse, the poor shall work 14 hours in a day, allowing proper time for meals, in such manner that there shall remain 12 hours of neat labour.' [...] The 'House of Terror' for paupers, only dreamed of by the capitalist mind in 1770, was brought into being a few years later in the shape of a gigantic 'workhouse' for the industrial worker himself. It was called the factory. And this time the ideal was a pale shadow compared with the reality. (10.5.12-14)
The technology of the Industrial Revolution led to factories with infamously bad working conditions.
Quote #8
The collective worker, who constitutes the living mechanism of manufacture, is made up solely of such one-sidedly specialized workers. Hence, in comparison with the independent handicraft, more is produced in less time, or in other words the productivity of labour is increased. Moreover, once this partial labour is established as the exclusive function of one person, the methods it employs become perfected. The worker's continued repetition of the same narrowly defined act and the concentration of his attention on it teach him by experience how to attain the desired effect with the minimum of exertion. (14.2.1)
Manufacture organized handicraft workers in ways that led to increased efficiency. Advances in organizational schemes could be considered a kind of technological development for businesses.
Quote #9
While simple co-operation leaves the mode of the individual's labour for the most part unchanged, manufacture thoroughly revolutionizes it, and seizes labour-power by its roots. It converts the worker into a crippled monstrosity by furthering his particular skill as in a forcing-house, through the suppression of a whole world of productive drives and inclinations, just as in the states of La Plata they butcher a whole beast for the sake of his hide or his tallow. (14.5.2)
Modernization under capitalism means workers become more specialized. Here Marx is pointing out the negative consequences of over-specialization. He says it closes down on productive drives and inclinations workers might have otherwise explored. Are you becoming increasingly specialized as a worker or student in order to meet current or future financial demands, and if so, how might this be impacting you negatively?